Dyson Airblade Tap unveiled: Wet and dry hands for £1,000

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Inventor Sir James Dyson has launched yet another innovative product dubbed the Airblade Tap, which combines both water and dryer into the ultimate sink solution.

Think about it: once you've washed your hands, you have to go all the way to the adjacent wall to dry them. Dyson has made a simple solution.

The Airblade Tap combines a water tap and built-in dryer in one single sink nozzle. Once you've washed your hands, you can quickly dry them.

The Airblade Tap, like most Dyson products, doesn't come without an expensive price tag. It is available for £1,000 starting 5 February. However, it is designed for consumer kitchens as well as more fancy establishments - architects should take note.

So how will this compare to the good-ol-fashion paper towel? According to Dyson, the "Airblade Tap hand dryer sends sheets of unheated filtered air at 420mph towards hands, literally scraping them dry. Hands are dry in 14 seconds."

The company has also redesigned and re-engineered two of its public-style hand dryers. The Dyson Airblade V is 60 per cent smaller than the previous generation, but features the same speed of hand drying skill. And the Dyson Airblade mk2 - the one that you put your hands in and out of as if you're doing a Tommy Cooper impression - is now 1.1kg lighter. It promises to dry hands in 10 seconds.

Of course, the latter two new machines are more for pub landlords and restaurant owners to think about as they probably wouldn't look quite as nifty next to the Aga as the Airblade Tap.

The Dyson Airblade V is £500 in white, £520 in nickel, while the Dyson Airblade mk2 will retail for £650 in PC ABS, £800 in aluminium.

Business owners or sink fanatics: will you be picking one up? Let us know in the comments below...